Salvation Army stuffs 593 backpacks for under-privileged children

Thanks to generous donations from the Saskatoon community, the Salvation Army stuffed nearly 600 backpacks with brand new school supplies this year.

“We have a big private donor and we have Millennium Group who donates money for this program so I had roughly $30,000 to spend on this program this year,” said Laurie Gerein, director of family services with the Salvation Army Saskatoon.

Gerein said this program has turned into a huge undertaking after the non-profit began receiving significant funding for its school-supply program.

“When I started about five years ago I did 75, that was my max then we got the big donors and I was able to go up to 500 last year and the year before that I got around 300 (backpacks filled),” she said.

Volunteers also play a huge role in the program, collecting new supplies including everything from pencils, binders, dictionaries and even USB memory sticks. Of the 593 backpacks filled ahead of the 2015-2016 school-year, 300 backpacks were stuffed for children from low-income families and 293 were for kids from families relying on social assistance.

“We’re trying to hit more low-income working people because people on assistance are given an allowance from the government, but they still struggle if they have a lot of kids, so we do the working-poor first and then we top it off with people who are on assistance,” Gerein said, adding around eight backpacks went to children living outside the city.